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Shaman punk is a subgenre of punk rock and hardcore punk first used by critics to describe the musical style of Hungarian band Galloping Coroners in the 1980s.
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed in the mid-1970s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in 1960s garage rock and other forms of what is now known as "proto-punk" music, punk rock bands rejected perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Punk bands typically produced short or fast-paced songs, with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record labels and other informal channels.
Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by New York punk rock and early proto-punk. New York punk had a harder-edged sound than its San Francisco counterpart, featuring anti-art expressions of masculine anger, energy, and subversive humor. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics."
Hungary has made many contributions to the fields of folk, popular and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music. It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra.
When Galloping Coroners (Hungarian: Vágtázó Halottkémek or simply VHK) was formed in 1975, there was not a defined category for the musical genre that they were exploring. Frontman Atilla Grandpierre was a student of shaman's music infusing Galloping Coroners with shamanistic philosophies and concepts from the start. Because the group was formed 1–2 years before the western punk movement the band didn't initially use the term "shaman punk" to define their music. [1]
Shamanic music is music played either by actual shamans as part of their rituals, or by people who, whilst not themselves shamans, wish to evoke the cultural background of shamanism in some way. So Shamanic music includes both music used as part of shamans' rituals and music that refers to, or draws on, this.
Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.
In late 1970s as punk rock emerged, VHK's relationship to punk and hardcore become obvious for both the band, fans and journalists. "Shamanistic punk", "psychedelic hardcore" and also "ethno punk" were expressions that began to be used retroactively by western musical press from the 1980s and was also applied by the Hungarian press after the political changes around 1989.
The Communist rule in the Hungarian People's Republic came to an end in 1989. The events were part of the Revolutions of 1989, known in Hungarian as the Rendszerváltás.
Some critics who regard tribal shaman music as an ancient form of folk music suggested the use of "ethno punk", while others claim that VHK's musical style should be regarded as a folk punk subgenre. But, while typical "folk punk" groups include national folk elements in their music, VHK's repetitive, ecstatic sound with distorted guitars and inarticulate howls is much closer to hardcore or even industrial rock.
Folk punk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success.
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and rock music.
Today the "shaman punk" expression is widely used in Hungarian and western musical media when talking about Galloping Coroners. [2] To date there is no other group that is regarded as "shaman punk".
The concept of "shaman punk" music is rooted in VHK's musical philosophy which includes exploring contemporary musical expressions of what prehistoric shamans did by their ecstatic, tribal ceremonies to find and join the powers of nature and creation. The band states that "it is a magical folk-music, a cosmic vision about the role of earthly life on the destination of the Universe." [3] VHK has described their music as "an instinctive primeval music liberating the elementary powers of nature - creating ourselves and evolving to its highest completion with a free spontaneity and overwhelming energy." [3] Band leader Attila Grandpierre explains this in his manifesto Punk As a Rebirth of Shamanist Folk Music in 1984 :
Punk is not simply a new, superficial "wave in fashion" but a radical reinterpretation of art, punk has gone back to such forgotten, underground layers of ancient culture... and plays the same role as shamanic ceremonies played in the “prehistoric” times giving a magic force for its creators, leading to ecstasy, and, through its force, elevated the participant’s relation to himself and the world into a symbolic order. [4]
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature and film. It is largely characterised by anti-establishment views and the promotion of individual freedom, and is centred on a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock. Its adherents are referred to as "punks", also spelled "punx" in the modern day.
Attila (406–453) was a king of the Huns in the 5th century.
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre combining elements of folk music and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival and the influence that the Beatles and other British Invasion bands had on members of that movement. Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds—several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their preexisting folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in the U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music.
Ska punk is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 Tone and ska with hardcore punk. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as saxophones, trombones and trumpets, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid 1990s.
Amon Düül II is a German rock band. The group is generally considered to be one of the founders of the Krautrock scene and a seminal influence on its development.
Hungarian rock has been a part of the popular music of Hungary since the early 1960s. The first major bands were Illés, Metró and Omega. At the time, rock was not approved of by the Hungarian Communist authorities. In the 1970s, the Communists cracked down on rock, and Illés was banned from recording. Some members of the other bands formed a supergroup called Locomotiv GT, while the band Omega became very popular in Germany.
Art punk is a category of punk artists who go beyond the genre's rudimentary garage rock and are considered more sophisticated than their peers. These groups generated punk's aesthetic of being simple, offensive, and free-spirited, in contrast to the angry, working-class audience generated by pub rock. In the late 1970s, the term was used as a pejorative for punk bands who were out of step with the genre's ideologies.
A large minority of people in North Asia, particularly in Siberia, follow the religio-cultural practices of shamanism. Some researchers regard Siberia as the heartland of shamanism.
Post Mortem was an American death metal band, formed in 1982 in suburban Boston. They formed when the members of the band were still in high school. The band rehearsed every day, often rushing home to write music after classes. John McCarthy penned the personal songs while drummer Rick McIver wrote the gore lyrics. John Alexander helped write most of the songs. “Our whole concept was that we honestly didn’t give a fuck. That’s why we’re lumped in with punk rock as well as metal,” McCarthy said, adding: “It’s much better to piss off people who think they’re pissed off than to piss off your grandma or your mother or your father.”
A number of overlapping punk rock subgenres have developed since the emergence of punk rock in the mid-1970s. Even though punk genres at times are difficult to segregate, they usually show differing characteristics in overall structures, instrumental and vocal styles, and tempo. However, sometimes a particular trait is common in several genres, and thus punk genres are normally grouped by a combination of traits.
Galloping Coroners was a Hungarian rock band active from 1975-2001, and briefly reformed in 2009 and 2013. The band established a unique "shaman punk" or "psychedelic hardcore” sound, and is regarded as one of the most important alternative bands of the 1980s from the Eastern European block. Permanent restrictions by Hungarian authorities made worldwide tours difficult for the band, but its ecstatic concerts garnered surprising success across Western Europe. Though relatively obscure and commercially limited outside of Eastern Europe, Maximumrocknroll described the band as "equal in spirit and grit to faves like Sonic Youth or Big Black but with an identity all its own”. VHK has been praised as a highly important band by Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra and Einstürzende Neubauten.
Galloping Wonder Stag is Hungarian music group, associated with world music, psychedelic folk, folk rock and shamanic music labels, continuing Galloping Coroners psychedelic music replacing electronic guitars and drums with acoustic folk instruments.
Nerd music is the overall category of music collecting the musical genres that grew from nerd culture; different styles that share the same common ground. The earliest example was filk music, from the 1950s onwards, played by fans at science fiction conventions. Towards the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, other styles of music developed. Factors that made this possible were the increasing affordability of equipment, the growth of the internet and the increase in the nerd/geek demographic.
Attila Grandpierre is a Hungarian musician, astrophysicist, physicist, self-taught historian, writer and poet. He is best known as leader/vocalist of the Galloping Coroners rock band.